>> Friday, July 18, 2008

I don't do a lot of email forwarding. Not because I am "anti-" email forwards, I just know that a lot of people are and I don't want them to start seeing my email address in their inbox and rolling their eyes. So I am choosy about the emails I forward. I have to really mean it.

Today I got an email forward that I had to pass on. It was one of those "out of the mouths of babes" emails that listed all the things children answered when asked "What is love?" I have no idea if children actually said any of the things in the email or not, but it didn't really matter to me. Some of the responses actually brought a tear to my eye. Not because they were supposedly said by a 6-year-old, but because they were profound even if they were said by a 36-year-old.

My favorite was by "Billy-age 4". He (allegedly) said "When someone loves you, they way they say your name is different. You just know their name is safe in your mouth."

This instantly made me think of Jesus.

Because I love Him, His name is safe in my mouth. That's saying a lot these days. His name is thrown around as an expletive. Or even worse, He is misrepresented. People use His name to justify hate. People use His name to support their judgemental attitudes. People use His name to support their tolerant-of-sin attitudes. He is given credit for being a good man, a divisive man or a lunatic. He is described in all different ways, but not by people who love Him.

For those of us who love Him, He is called Lord. He is called God. He is called Savior. We know that He is loving, merciful and kind. We also know that He is Truth, and Truth stands for something. He stands against sin and against evil. But mostly He stands as our representatives, covering us in His blood, ensuring our eternal salvation.